Do The Mariners Have Any Hope For Future Success?

A talentless ball-club is pretty much what you could call the Seattle Mariners this season. Every player on the team seems to have slumped all or most of the season. With this poor playing from a once outstanding organization that only accepted the best from its players; I have gone from loving to watch Ichiro to dreading his at-bats. I have gone from loving to watch Felix Hernandez pitch to knowing that there is not enough offense on this team to keep him in games unless he doesn't allow more then 0-2 runs, and 2 runs is still pushing it for this team. I went from loving to see Adrian Beltre make ridiculous plays and provide a spark in the middle of the lineup to seeing him make error after error and slump at the plate. Then there is a guy like JJ Putz who used to come in and you knew the game was over but now I know hes going to mess it up. There are very few bright spots to this organization.

When I watch M's games, I look forward to seeing Brandon Morrow, Jose Lopez, and seeing if Jeff Clement can finally figure out how to hit up in the bigs. Besides for those three, I really have no interest in watching my favorite team. When you know the team has a .380 winning percentage it makes it tough to root for them. I mean, I always do, but I always have this gut feeling that they'll manage to find a way to lose. For example, on July 29th against the Texas Rangers the Mariners were up 10-9 going into the ninth. I was waiting to see Brandon Morrow run out, but then I remembered Putz had been back from injury for awhile, there he was running out with an expression of anxiety on his face. Last season the JJ Putz I knew and loved ran out knowing he'd finish the game off. This Putz has the confidence of the whole ball-club, a confidence that isn't there. He started off shaky from the start and in the end he delivered a game ending double to Ramon Vazquez who did it with two men on base ending the game with a W for the Rangers. The blown save resulted in Putzes 5th blown save and 4th loss of the season. Also he only has seven saves and two wins this season with a 5.04 ERA.

Putz is a great example that the Mariners now need to look to younger players for success because the older ones seem to lack motivation, confidence, and any belief that they could get better. While Putz was injured Brandon Morrow came in and wasn't perfect but sure was better then Putz. His numbers are 1 win, 2 losses, a 1.51 ERA, 46 strikeouts, 15 walks, and 10 saves, not bad huh? If the Mariners want to win in the future I think they need to start off by putting Morrow into the starting rotation, also they should trade away every old bum that is doing no good for this ball-club. The only way they are going to turn this around is to rebuild so they must be doing more deals like the Arthur Rhoades one yesterday. Players they should get rid of this off-season (and should of got rid of before the trade deadline) are: Jose Vidro, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, Miguel Cairo, Adrian Beltre, Kenji Johjima, and possibly even Ichiro. The only reason I would keep Raul Ibañez is because he is a good veteran leader to still have on this team, plus he still puts up good enough numbers to stay in the lineup.

I hope that the front office figures out that rebuilding is the only way to turn this ballclub around, because keeping these older players around is not going to do any good. Also the front office needs to figure out that they're not going to get as much in return as they'd like which is okay in my book. I'd take young prospects over slumping veterans anyday.